May 2009

Hackerspaces at the Faire

31May2009

It was a banner afternoon for talking about hacker spaces.

Made five new friends from five different hacker spaces:

Brett Stephens - Houston - Technology Collective of Houston - along with his wife Asha (sp? from Guelph!) this is a new group just getting off the ground. It's amazing how we all have very similar challenges. They held early meetings in a coffee shop/bar which garnered lots of incidental walk by traffic and interest thanks to all the blinking LEDs.
Paul Mantz - Chicago - Pumping Station:One - Paul's group includes an awesome variety of skilled makers including an architect and a carpenter. That really helps when you're refitting you space. Collecting monthly dues before actually getting the space seems pretty common. Paul thought we were perhaps overestimating our monthly operating costs by estimating them at our rent rate.
Bre Pettis - NYC - NYC Resistor - talked about the importance of vetting new members. Also talked about the need to delegate work. I could watch Bre's company's MakerBot extrude ABS plastic all day.
Rob Flickenger - Seattle - Hackerbot Labs - another new-member-vetting conversation and he mentioned a cool idea (from a 3rd party) of creating a hackerspace visa which could be stamped with unique stamps each time you visit a foreign hackerspace. Rob had good questions around the motivation for starting our group and the importance of defining that vision.
Leigh Honeywell - Toronto - hacklab - intros to Rob's group, talk about incorporation, the benefit of natural light in your space, invite to hacklab whenever we're in the city, offer of some help if we're putting in rfid access control. Leigh will be doing a how-to-sew meetup by popular demand at hacklab. She also suggested the hackerspaces DL which some of you are probably on, saying signal-to-noise is pretty good despite some recent flamewars.

Would someone like to collaborate?

31May2009

Hey everyone (and especially those who can program in C)...

I've got a neat little idea that I'd like to build at some point.

I want to build an in-ear nap timer using an ATTiny microcontroller. The idea is to build a timer into the body of an in-ear headphone, that can count down from a certain number of minutes then wake the user with a simple beep. It would have a single button to select the time amount (15 mins, 30 mins, 45 mins, 1 hour) and a single LED that blinks to show which time interval has been selected. The earbud speaker would be driven either directly by the microcontroller or by a transistor. It should run on a pair of button cells.

So, does anyone want to help me program this?

Maker Faire: died and gone to heaven

30May2009

Field Trips

Having an AMAZING time at the Faire. Wish you were here.

WIP: Homemade Amp

30May2009

amplifier DIY WIP

OK, first attempt at posting...

I had a cool-looking purple-ish speaker laying around, so I decided to see what I could make from it by scrounging parts that I already had. I decided to make a general purpose mono audio amp. I found a wooden box that would (barely) fit it and got to work.

I got a 7-watt Canakit amplifier from Sayal (last one, ha ha!) which went together surprisingly easily. I connected the IN to an MP3 player , the OUT to the speaker, the power to a 14v wall-wart I have lying around, and gave it a shot...And it worked the first time!! I haven't had that much luck in a kit since...ever!

I kept the volume pot unseated from the board so I could place it wherever I wanted on the box. The tricky part was drilling the hole for the speaker. It's a 15cm woofer, but I had no bits that large nor tools to cut it with cleanly. So, I drilled 9 separate sub-holes to create a wooden "grill" with the largest bits I had (around 2"). Unfortunately, it ended up looking a little lopsided, so I chopped out the middle. Still looks good in my opinion. I then started sanding it for a nice classy finish, but when I roughed it up I found I really liked the "hillbilly" look. To top it off, I put a spare toolbox clasp on to keep the box secure, and a screen door handle on top to carry it with. Yeehaw! In the pics below I've also added the 1/8" phone jack and a barrel power plug.

Photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cowgoesbloo/sets/72157619016956968/

To do:

What are YOU working on?

29May2009

DW has suggested it might be teh kewl & in the proper spirit of things if we were to share our WIPs. Mine is not so shiny, and is feeling a little timid under the spotlight. But never let it be said I don't know how to play along!

Our first Arduino meetup featured Pilot & I (Co-Pilot) powering through Ladyada's Arduino tutorial, lessons 0-3. For the uninitiated, those are the blinkenlichten portions of the program. We learned the magical incantations, performed the ritual dances, and lights did blink. With the appropriate sacrifice (chicken, not goat, it turns out), we even managed to get them to blink in the correct sequence. And change colour (once we switched to an RGB LED). But how do we turn that magic in to science?

Central Ontario Hamfest

Submitted by amackie on Fri, 2009-05-29 11:28

Date:

Saturday, June 6, 2009 (All day)

Location:

Wellington Community Sportsplex, Fergus

"A classic running its 35th year. Major vendors, collectors, hobbyists, and enthusiasts enjoy this one. Lots of room indoors and out on the lawn. You meet your friends at this one!"

I've never been, but apparently they have lots of good electronic gear...

http://www.hamfest.on.ca/